‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8 May Get Pushed To 2019

The final season of 'Game of Thrones' may be shorter than the seventh season, but it could be a very long time before we get to see it.

Years ago, a few unnamed TV showrunners marveled at the ability of Dan Weiss and David Benioff to produce a complete 10-episode season of Game of Thrones every year. This year is the first time that the new season has ever debuted later than April, but it appears that Weiss and Benioff’s perfect track record may not last for much longer.

During a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, HBO Programming President Casey Bloys was asked about the possibility that the final season of Game of Thrones may skip 2018 entirely. “Yeah,” replied Bloys. “[Benioff and Weiss] have to write the episodes and figure out the production schedule. We’ll have a better sense of that once they get further into the writing.”

Keep in mind, the final season of Game of Thrones is said to be only six or seven episodes long, but those episodes also have the added pressure of wrapping up the entire storyline years before George R.R. Martin offers the final two novels in his A Song of Ice and Fire series that inspired the show. If the final season is pushed back, perhaps Martin’s sixth novel will be released in the interim. But we’re not placing bets!

In the same interview, Bloys explained why Benioff and Weiss don’t even want a courtesy credit on whichever Game of Thrones prequel series that HBO decides to go forward with.

“They came into HBO with an idea for a show with a beginning, middle, and end, and they want to see it through,” said Bloys. “In conversations with them, they feel if their name is on the prequels — even in a passive way — it conveys some sort of expectation or responsibility. They want to enjoy the show as fans and don’t want to worry about the scripts or production issues. We were hoping to have their names on it out of respect for them, but we understand why they don’t want that.”

The seventh season of Game of Thrones will premiere on Sunday, July 16.

How do you feel about a potential delay for the final season of GoT? Let us know in the comment section below!